Kari Paul here, signing off for the night! Here are the top stories from the past few hours.
Verizon became the latest company to pull advertising from Facebook in response to the company’s policies around hate speech and misinformation. It joins dozens of others including Patagonia and REI.
Vice president Mike Pence and other members of the Trump administration were criticized Thursday for touring an automobile factory in Ohio without masks.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the number of Covid-19 cases in US may be 10 times higher than reported.
Black voters support Biden over Trump at a staggering 92% to 5%, a new poll found.
Black voters in the US say racism and police conduct are the top issues for the 2020 election, a new poll from Washington Post-Ipsos finds, and are highly critical of Donald Trump on both matters.
The poll shows support for Biden is significantly higher than that for Trump among Black voters, at 92% to 5%. Roughly half of those polled who will vote for Biden say they will do so because they “support Biden” and the other half say they mainly “oppose Trump.”
Support for Biden among Black voters is highly stratified along age lines. Some 87% of black seniors say Biden is sympathetic to the problems of Black people in America, but that number drops to 66% among those under age 40.
This could affect voter turn out, the poll said: only 61% of Black voters under the age of 40 say they are “certain to vote” in November compared to 82% of Black adults between 40 and 65 and 87% of Black adults over the age of 65.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Thursday the number of Covid-19 cases in US may be 10 times higher than reported.
By those measures, an estimated 20 million Americans have been infected by the virus, compared to the official number of 2.45 million infected. The CDC released the new estimate based on testing for antibodies across the country.
“Our best estimate right now is that for every case that’s reported, there actually are 10 other infections,” CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said on a call with reporters Thursday.
That’s because many cases of the illness come with no symptoms, Redfield noted. That does not undermine how dangerous the disease is, he noted. On Thursday, the CDC also expanded its list of who is at greatest risk for COVID-19 complications, removing the age cutoff of 65.
“There’s not an exact cutoff of age at which people should or should not be concerned,” Jay Butler of the CDC said.
Vice president Mike Pence and other members of the Trump administration were criticized Thursday for touring Lordstown Motors, in Lordstown, Ohio without wearing masks.
Vice President Mike Pence tours Lordstown Motors, in Lordstown, OH. No one, including the VP, wears a mask. pic.twitter.com/WmAmxQ0leS
Members of the Trump administration, including Donald Trump himself, have frequently declined to wear masks throughout the coronavirus pandemic despite CDC recommendations to do so.
Pence was at the former General Motors plant for the unveiling of an all-electric truck. He discussed the Trump administration’s trade policies as they relate to manufacturing.
“We fought for free and fair trade and the values and ideals that have always made this country great,” Pence said. “On every single promise, President Trump delivered for the people of Ohio.”
Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley told reporters on Thursday he does not believe lawmakers will be able to compromise on police reform legislation because the issue has become “too partisan”.
"I'm very pessimistic...Republicans can never get credit for a bill dealing with race issues...this is very much partisan...they don't care anything about the black community"#NexstarDC@WHO13newspic.twitter.com/cCLOlCybYn
“I’m very pessimistic...Republicans can never get credit for a bill dealing with race issues or a bill dealing with police reform,” he said. “This is very much partisan, they don’t care anything about the black community.”
Verizon is pulling advertising from Instagram and Facebook, the biggest name to boycott the company thus far as the movement calling on Facebook to address hate speech grows.
The company said on Thursday it will join other companies including Ben & Jerry’s, Patagonia and REI in suspending advertising from Facebook-owned platforms until the company “can create an acceptable solution that makes us comfortable.”
“We have strict content policies in place and have zero tolerance when they are breached, we take action,” Verizon’s chief media officer John Nitti said in a statement. “We’re pausing our advertising until Facebook can create an acceptable solution that makes us comfortable and is consistent with what we’ve done with YouTube and other partners.”
The move comes after “Stop Hate for Profit” campaign was launched Wednesday by advocacy groups including the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, and the Color Of Change. It asks advertisers to pressure the tech giant to adopt stricter policies against racist and hateful content on its platforms by pausing all spending on advertising with the company for the month of July.
As part of the campaign, the groups alerted Verizon that one of its advertisements on Facebook had appeared next to a video from the conspiracy group QAnon drawing on hateful and antisemitic rhetoric.
The advocacy groups argue Facebook has failed to address misinformation and hate speech by making Breitbart News a “trusted news source” despite its history of working with white nationalists and neo-Nazis, allegedy allowing housing discrimination against communities of color, and failing to remove Holocaust denial posts.
The pressure on Facebook to moderate hate speech has accelerated in recent weeks as the platform refused to flag false and incendiary statements from Donald Trump despite moves from rival platform Twitter to do so.
Facebook acknowledged the growing pressure on a call with advertisers on Wednesday, where a Facebook executive admitted there is a “trust deficit” with its clients on the platform.
That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Kari Paul, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
Joe Biden accused Trump of “whining and self-pity” amid the coronavirus pandemic. “He’s like a child who can’t believe this has happened to him,” Biden said during a speech in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. “All his whining and self-pity. Well, this pandemic didn’t happen to him; it happened to all of us. And his job isn’t to whine about it. His job is to do something about it.”
The House is expected to soon pass the Democratic police reform bill, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. House members are currently debating the bill, and it will then come up for a full floor vote. Although it will likely pass the House, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has already said the legislation is a non-starter.
Another 1.5 million Americans filed for unemployment last week. About 47 million Americans have now submitted unemployment claims since the start of the coronavirus crisis. The weekly number has leveled off in recent weeks, but the figure remains worrisomely high as many states report increases in new coronavirus cases.
The treasury department sent $1.4 billion worth of stimulus payments to dead people. The direct payments, which were approved as part of the $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill, were sent to more than 1 million Americans who had already died, the Government Accountability Office said in a new report.
Trump reportedly asked for a toppled Confederate statue to be put back up. According to NBC News, the president personally requested that the DC statue of Confederate general Albert Pike, which was torn down by protesters last week, be put back up.
Defense secretary Mark Esper said he has authorized the deployment of 4,000 Pentagon personnel to the southern border starting in October, a month before the presidential election in November.
According to a statement from the Pentagon, “the duties to be performed by military personnel include ... detection and monitoring, logistics and transportation support to US Customs and Border Protection.”
The announcement was reminiscent of Trump’s efforts to focus attention on the migrant caravan in the weeks leading up to the 2018 midterm elections.
As Americans prepared to go to the polls, the president threatened to send the military to the US-Mexican border to stop those in the caravan from entering the country.
However, the gambit did not pay off, as Democrats ultimatelytook control of the House of Representatives in the midterms.
More from the Guardian’s Mario Koran in California:
Despite the grim report on the rise in new coronavirus cases, governor Gavin Newsom maintained his characteristically stoic delivery, encouraging Californians to continue to do their part by wearing masks and keeping safe distances.
It’s only because of the steps taken, he said, that the state has been able to avoid the worst case scenario he floated in March, when he said more than half the state, roughly 25m residents, could contract the virus over the next eight weeks.
“We are not victims of fate,” said Newsom. “We can manifest the future.”
Newsom praised the decision by Disney to push back its reopening date, originally set for July 17, after cases spiked in and around Los Angeles.
Newsom also unveiled the creation of an open-source portal for members of the public to scour coronavirus data, a platform he said was partly created in an effort “to back up the health professionals”.
The move comes on the heels of reports of anger and threats being directed toward public health experts. This week, Los Angeles county’s director of public health said someone casually suggested she should be shot during a Covid-19 briefing she was hosting on Facebook live.
The Guardian’s Mario Koran reports from California as the state grapples with a surge in new coronavirus cases:
California governor Gavin Newsom didn’t waste time in today’s press briefing delivering a blunt message: the state has not yet entered the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. It is not yet out of the first.
In recent days the picture in California has worsened on nearly every measure. Tuesday set a new record for coronavirus infections, counting more than 7,000 new positive test results. The positivity rate of those testing has ticked up to 5.6% in the past seven days. The state is currently using 34% of its ICU capacity, a percentage that’s also on the rise.
More than 4,200 patients are currently hospitalized due to Covid-19, absorbing 8% of the state’s surge capacity.
Between Sunday and Tuesday, California witnessed a 69% rise in coronavirus cases in just two days, as communities reopen from lockdown restrictions. Los Angeles county now leads the nation with more than 88,500 cases, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
In his speech on healthcare, Joe Biden criticized Trump for calling coronavirus testing a “double-edged sword” during his Saturday rally in Tulsa.
“Testing unequivocally saves lives, and widespread testing is the key to opening up our economy again — so that’s one edge of the sword,” Biden said in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
“The other edge: that he thinks finding out that more Americans are sick will make him look bad. And that’s what he’s worried about. He’s worried about looking bad.”
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee also urged Americans to socially distance and wear masks to limit the spread of coronavirus.
“We’re going to have to wear masks. And I know as Americans it’s not something we’re used to. But it matters,” Biden said. “We’re going to have to socially distance. It’s not easy. It seems so strange to us. ... But for now, we have to socially distance. It matters.”
Biden accuses Trump of 'whining and self-pity' amid pandemic
Joe Biden delivered remarks on healthcare in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, this afternoon, as more than half of US states report increases in the number of new coronavirus cases.
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee accused Trump of mishandling the US response to the pandemic.
“He’s like a child who can’t believe this has happened to him,” Biden said. “All his whining and self-pity. Well, this pandemic didn’t happen to him; it happened to all of us. And his job isn’t to whine about it. His job is to do something about it.”
Biden on Trump: "He's like a child who can't believe this has happened to him. All his whining and self- pity. Well, this pandemic didn't happen to him, it happened to all of us. And his job isn't to whine about it. His job is to do something about it." https://t.co/Nj065CIsxppic.twitter.com/wxZdNgPi9e
Biden criticized Trump for continuing to attack the Affordable Care Act as the country grapples with this crisis. The administration, for example, is still part of a lawsuit aimed at overturning the ACA.
“If Donald Trump refuses to end his senseless crusade against health coverage, I look forward to ending it for him,” the former vice president said.
“The presidency is a duty to care,” Biden added. “A duty to care for everyone, not just who voted for you, but to care for everyone, all of us.”
California declares budget emergency over coronavirus surge
Joanna Walters
California’s governor Gavin Newsom moments ago declared a budget emergency in the most populous US state, blaming expenses and the economic downturn caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Victoria Gichohi, community health organizer at St. John’s Well Child and Family Center, waits for a teamster to be tested for Covid-19 yesterday in the Wilmington area of Los Angeles. Truck drivers at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach were offered free testing. Photograph: Ashley Landis/AP
Such an action allows the state to tap into its so-called rainy day fund for extra resources, Reuters reports.
California anticipates a $54.3-billion budget deficit due to costs and a drop in revenue linked to the pandemic.
Under a deal reached with lawmakers, the state would use about $16 billion from the rainy day fund over the next three years to help right its budget, said HD Palmer, a spokesman for the governor’s finance department.
The finance department has projected a 25.5% decline in personal income taxes collected by the state, and a 27% decline in sales taxes and a 23% drop in corporate taxes.
In addition, the state expects to spend more than projected in 2020 because of expenses related to the coronavirus pandemic of about $13 billion.
California is having a torrid time amid the latest surge in coronavirus infections sweeping southern and western states.
You can read the latest national report on this here.
The Guardian reported yesterday that California has seen a 69% rise in coronavirus cases in just two days, Newsom said, as the state continues to battle a surge of new infections and hospitalizations.
The state has witnessed an alarming jump in cases as communities reopen from lockdown restrictions. Los Angeles county now leads the nation with more than 88,500 cases, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
An attempt to block publication of a book by Donald Trump’s niece has been dismissed by a court in New York.
Ted Boutros, an attorney for Mary Trump, tweeted that a court in Queens dismissed a lawsuit brought by the president’s brother, Robert Trump.
“The court has promptly and correctly held that it lacks jurisdiction to grant the Trump family’s baseless request to suppress a book of utmost public importance and concern,” Boutros said.
“We hope this decision will end the matter. Democracy thrives on the free exchange of ideas, and neither this court nor any other has authority to violate the constitution by imposing a prior restraint on core political speech.”
There seems little doubt it will not end the matter.
Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man by Mary L Trump is due out on 28 July. According to publisher Simon & Schuster, also behind John Bolton’s tell-all which a federal judge declined to block last week, the trained clinical psychologist will “shine a bright light on the dark history of their family” and offer a “revelatory, authoritative portrait of Donald J Trump and the toxic family that made him”.
The publisher also promises “a nightmare of traumas, destructive relationships, and a tragic combination of neglect and abuse” that explain the inner workings of “one of the world’s most powerful and dysfunctional families”.
Mary Trump has expressed opposition to her uncle on Twitter and was reportedly a key source for the New York Times’ Pulitzer-winning reporting on the Trump family’s tax affairs. But almost 20 years ago, she signed a non-disclosure agreement concerning litigation over a family will.
In an interview with the news site Axios last week, President Trump said: “She’s not allowed to write a book. You know, when we settled with her and her brother, who I do have a good relationship with – she’s got a brother, Fred, who I do have a good relationship with, but when we settled, she has a total ... signed a nondisclosure.”
On Thursday Mary Trump’s brother told the Daily Mail he believed the NDA meant his sister should not be allowed to publish.
In a statement which the Mail said was provided by Eric Trump, the president’s second son, Fred Trump III said: “At the time that our lawsuit with the family was resolved, Mary and I had each received a generous financial settlement from the family and were more than willing to agree to execute non-disclosure provisions.
“In my opinion, those provisions of the 2001 settlement agreement are still in effect and binding today and I have continued to honor them.”
It was also reported that the president’s younger brother, Robert Trump, spent 10 days in intensive care before filing his suit to stop his niece.
In a statement to the New York Times after he left hospital the 72-year-old said: “Her attempt to sensationalize and mischaracterize our family relationship after all of these years for her own financial gain is both a travesty and injustice to the memory of my late brother, Fred, and our beloved parents. I and the rest of my entire family are so proud of my wonderful brother, the president, and feel that Mary’s actions are truly a disgrace.”
Trump’s nominee to lead the Manhattan US attorney’s office would not commit to recusing himself from investigations involving the president during a House hearing today.
Securities and exchange commission chairman Jay Clayton --who has been named as Trump’s replacement for Geoffrey Berman, after the top prosecutor’s abrupt firing this weekend -- was pressed on the issue while testifying before a House financial services subcommittee.
Democratic congressman Carolyn Maloney asked Clayton if he would “commit, right here, to recusing yourself” from investigations involving the president’s businesses or associates.
Clayton replied, “What I will commit to do, which is what I commit to in my current job, is to approach the job with independence and to follow all ethical rules.”
The abrupt firing of Berman prompted speculation that Trump was looking to crack down on the investigations coming out of the southern district of New York office.
The president has previously lashed out against administration officials, such as former attorney general Jeff Sessions, who recuse themselves from high-profile investigations.
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell encouraged Americans to wear masks to limit the spread of coronavirus, as more than half of US states report increases in new cases.
“I think that’s what people ought to do,” the Kentucky Republican told an ABC News reporter. “That’s what we’re doing in the Senate, and that’s what I’m counseling other people to do.”
Some Republican lawmakers, including senators Mitt Romney and Marco Rubio, have similarly encouraged their constituents to cover their faces.
However, other congressional Republicans have taken a much more laissez-faire approach to encouraging mask usage.
At the end of a House freedom caucus press conference moments ago, caucus chairman Andy Biggs was asked whether his Arizona consitutents should wear masks. “It’s up to them,” Biggssaid.
A photo of the press conference indicated only one of the Republican lawmakers was wearing a mask during the event.
